Technical How bad is it to fix rust like this?

The Studebaker in the picture didn't look terrible when I bought it. After I brought it home and disassembled it...well it was FAR worse than I had imagined. The bright spot was that my sheet metal welding skills were enhanced after I completed it. If you aren't in love with the car I'd probably pass.

 

I’ll go the other way, since it’s not a ultra rare and desirable dream car of your it may be the perfect candidate to learn some metal working skills on…

 

If that was a body style I wanted I would have no problem with that, they arent making them anymore you know. Plus would not need a "must do it exactly right" repair, figuring it would never see winter weather again even a half ass repair will last for years. I know of too many cars that have sat for decades under "restoration" that will never see the light of day due to trying to make everything perfect.

 

It is always worse than it looks, effort spent on a two door is lots more rewarding. If you fix it you better love it, cause it will be hard to pass along.

 

Also, the sheet metal that is available for 58's are not worth a shit. The same cheap ass repair panels that guys where pop riveting into place and mudding over to make them presentable for a few more years in the 60's. For whatever reason 58's were rusting out when they were new. Same as 57 and 58 Fords. By the time you do basic patching, a Maco spray job, complete mechanical rebuild, interior and trim and doing most of it yourself at today's parts and material prices you could dump 20 grand in a car that would be mediocre in fit, and finish and you couldn't see 5 to 6 grand if you could even find a buyer. A money pit of Titanic proportions. Larry

 

...which is why you don't want to bother messing with bodywork on a car like that, and only fixing what's broke, instead of rebuilding everything.

 

Make it go and stop
Give it a bath and some gas
Zoom zoom

 

A guy would really have to be in love with that particular 4 door to want to bring it all the way back and remove all of the rust and repair the panels. I'm thinking that the front of the fender around the headlight rusted out on a lot of 58's real early in their life and that is one reason we don't see many 58 Chevys of any body style now. By the late 70's 58 and 59 Chevys of any body style were rare here in the Yakima Valley. They weren't even sitting in wrecking yards.

Still in this case rare isn't going to mean more valuable, it is going to mean it's a lot harder to find decent parts to replace roached out parts on. I'm like the others, if it is cheap enough, and you can drive it safely while maybe doing a bit of repair work on some parts as you go plan on driving it and having fun with it but don't pay a premium for it.

 

Run Forest run!

 

It should zoom zoom real good with all the holes in it. Wind resistance should be way down.........

 

Might whistle and scare deers away.
It’s not rust, it’s character.
Most of my rides have character

 

It takes way more than a good Welder to do good sheet metal work. Also, if you're counting on your close friends to pony up free time to do hours and hours of work so you have a nice ride you will soon have less friends as they will hear their Mother calling them earlier and earlier. It's a Ton of work and it's dirty as hell.

 

It's not a family heirloom. You weren't conceived, or born in it, and your grandpa didn't buy it new. Before you give it another thought, you need to look underneath, see if it has any floors, rockers, or body mounts. Don't care how rare it is, it looks like a parts car to me, and that's without seeing decent pics overall.

 

Being a 58 chev there will be patch panels available. If you purchase them I think it would be relatively easy to repair. It just takes time and effort. I would not think twice about repairing it.

 

I've fixed tons of shit like that, wouldn't scare me off one bit if the price was right and I wanted the car. But that's one of the things I like to do, I'd rather fix a rusty car that runs and drives than do engine swaps and mechanical stuff. Rust free '58 Chevys don't exactly grow on trees, and they are no where to be found in Wisconsin.

That said, if both fenders and rear quarters look like that, but minimal other body issues, I'd still figure 100 hours of metalwork to fix that, and I've done a lot of it so I'm probably much faster than someone just learning.

If you had to pay someone to do it, it wouldn't be worth it, but then again, you rarely save money by buying a project and paying someone else to do it.

 

So it's a rusty beater. Believe or not I'm gonna say this. Mud it up if you want it to look better, touch it up with a rattle can. Seal it well it might even last a few years. Yup, everybody, I said mud it. What's the alternative? Finding zero rust parts for huge $$$$? Doing ultra skilled butt welded perfect fit panels? On what, a car worth 10K or less if it's nice. Mud it if its mechanically safe or like Jim says let it eat just like it is. Or sometimes the most profitable move, walk away and keep looking.

 

I patched this stuff up for a living before I retired!

From a perspective of wanting to learning to do sheet metal and body work, that thing is a gold mine! It won't make much difference in value if you really screw it up, because its already really screwed up. It would be a great learning experience. If it actually can move down the road as is, that would be even better. You can patch up a place, and still drive an old car to the ice cream store and back home. Don't invest anything you can't afford to throw away, it will never have any value outside of the learning experience. You buy it at scrap price, work on what you want to learn about and in the end, its worth scrap price.

If you have no desire to learn to do sheet metal or body work, or worse yet, expect someone else to do it for you, that thing will be your worst nightmare. You will loose friends, and you will hate the car.

If it can actually be safely driven down the road, and back as it is, it might be a fun cheap toy for a season or two. It could be something that gets you involved in the hobby, participating is always more fun then watching from the sidelines. It might be a really good way to locate a much better car to step up into. Often times when people see you in an old car, they will tell you where others might be sitting. In that case, you buy it cheap (scrap price or just over) then the only do the things that are really needed to keep it rolling down the road, be willing to junk it when a quick fix it doesn't work. Gene

 

What you can't see is the costly stuff to repair, find a better car to start with.

 

Due to circumstances, I was living in the midwest rust belt at one time. I can honestly say that I saw more cars with the "rust throughs" hammered in and fill with Bondo than I ever saw good metal patched in. I never did that but I did buy a few and drive 'em for a while. I'm sure they were somebody's weekend projects to squeeze another year or two out of a beater.
It's a low-down solution but if you want to drive a "classic on a budget" just on fair, dry days, it'll look good at 40mph with one eye shut.

 

I have a 50 chevy truck, did the cowls, floors, firewall bottoms, cab corners, and cab supports. Never welded much
before, started with the floors. It is like anything else, you can learn it if you are motivated enough, but you will make
mistakes. I warped the bedsides beyond my repair, but considered them practice. You have to like the vehicle to keep
motivated, if not do not do it.

 

1) if you see rust thru the patch panel needs to be about 3× larger.
2) if you can't weld sheetmetal - learn or move on, you'll go broke paying someone else to do it.
3) need a decent welder with gas. Flux core - budget welders just don't get the job done.

 

Is this the car in Dunbarton? If so, then $8K sounds just a bit high to me for the amount of work to fix that much rot

 

Pretty sure the OP said he was taking a pass on the car.
If he were to tell us what he wants from it, might be easier to give advice.
Old car that runs good, old car that looks new, show winner, beater, daily, etc. I’ve done the chicken wire thing before, I just wanted primer places to not have holes, etc.

Y’all ever wonder when we were younger how we “fixed them up” in a few weeks and enjoyed them? Now it takes me several years to kind of get an idea of when I might be done and have some enjoyment out of it.

It’s not real difficult to do what @squirrel recently did with his Rambler. Go through that thread and look at the pics and his solutions, Hmnn, kinda like a young guy that needed a car that would serve a purpose and keep on ticking.

 

Good project car to learn bodywork. Otherwise, "it's too expensive, even if it's free"!

 

I think we all either have bought a project or have seen a friend buy a project, only to tear into it, start fixing rust, fix more rust, find and fix even more rust, and so on, and eventually realize that no matter how much more it would have cost to buy the same car without rust, how far you had to go to get it, it would have been a better deal. Spending more on buying it and putting a few days into picking it up (or having it shipped) could save you months of garage time.

Sometimes you just have to accept what is available and work with what you can get, but by the sound of it there doesn't seem to be anything special about this car so it's hard to motivate putting loads of work into it.

 

if the price is right I don’t think I would put a penny in that body. as long as it has a good frame and good running gear… just enjoy it as it is. it’s basically just a survivor.

 

Whatever rust shows is usually half of what you'll find once you begin opening things up! But as far as rust on an old car that doesn't look all that bad.
I'd get the car jacked up on stands to inspect the underside, regardless of what the seller tells you about "perfect floors". I doubt you will find things are actually perfect underneath.

 

If it's a good running car interior is good ,glass brakes are ok offer him a I don't want to buy it price . If he excepts drive as is do a cheap lower job through some wheels on it and enjoy.

 

4 door with lots of rust is a beater or parts car. If the FRAME is rusty or damaged forget it.

 

Yep, definitely taking a pass. I figured I may as well ask just to see what the general idea was to replace it, and everyone has the same opinion.

Really was looking for something totally rust free that was pretty much strip and paint. This car is local and from the north west, and the description said totally solid... I managed to get these photos back and already knew in the back of my mind it's too much work for a four door 58 but figured why not ask. I figured one little hole no big deal, but this looks to be a big job.